Gender mix

Experts expect the proportion of women car owners to rise from 30 to 50 per cent in the next 20 years. However, women have different requirements from men when buying a new car. They shop more and look after children and grandparents. They would therefore welcome a practical loading platform, a boot that has compartments or holders for shopping and easily adjustable seats.

The marketing departments of automobile manufacturers are slow to react to this new target group. But it is not only cars that are an issue. Women and men have different requirements in other areas, too. One result of the 'Discover Gender' project, carried out under the auspices of the

, is that women generally have different expectations about products than men.

Another result of the project is that men primarily think like men when they develop a new product. The manager of the project, Martina Schraudner, found that middle-aged male engineers tend to develop things for their peers. They therefore ignore a variety of other applications for men and women because they only have one particular use of model in mind.